Korean J Leg Med 2017;41:67-72

Medical Examiner’s Office, National Forensic Service, Wonju, Korea,

Sewon Forensic Medical Services, Seoul, Korea,

Department of Legal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea,

Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea,

Department of Forensic Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea,

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, 8 Wide Area Crime Scene Investigation Team, Seoul, Korea,

National Forensic Service, Seoul Institute, Seoul, Korea,

National Forensic Service, Wonju, Korea

rudany@korea.kr

From January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016, a total of 1147 postmortem inspection cases in Area 8, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (Gangseo, Yangcheon, and Guro police stations) were statistically analyzed. Autopsies were performed in 205 cases (17.9%), and the autopsy rates were 17.6% (75/426 cases) in the Gangseo police station, 9.5% (34/357 cases) in the Yangcheon police station, and 24.3% (82/337 cases) in the Guro police station. For 288 cases with an unknown cause of death, the autopsy rates were 70.0% (60/87 cases) in the Gangseo police station, 28.6% (26/91 cases) in the Yangcheon police station, and 63.1% (65/103 cases) in the Guro police station. For 65 cases due to fall from height, the autopsy rate was 7.7% (n=5). Of the 187 cases due to hanging, 155 cases were classified as suicide at the scene with a 4.5% (n=7) autopsy rate and 32 cases were classified as an undetermined manner of death at the scene with a 15.6% (n=5) autopsy rate. The distribution of the “manner of death” was natural death, 45% (n=516); unnatural death, 29.9% (n=343); and other and undetermined, 25.1% (n=288). Proportions of dispatch times were 50.9% (584 cases) during work hours (09:00-8:00), 13.8% (n=158) during evening hours (18:00-21:00), 13.4% (n=154) at night (21:00-00:00), 11% (n=126) at dawn (00:00-06:00), and 10.9% (n=125) during morning hours (06:00-09:00). The male-to-female ratio was 1.86:1 (746:401). These statistics are valuable for the evaluation of postmortem inspections by experts.

Key Words: Postmortem inspection; Autopsy rate; Cause of death; Statistics